more on the topic from a couple years ago:
http://cellphoneforums.net/general-c...dma-phone.html

Originally Posted by compaqpresario

Yes, there are some carriers that will, however, most wont. Also, that is what you would need to program into your phone to have it work on another carrier, unless you want the carrier to wipe everything. I should also note that not all CDMA phones work with all CDMA carriers. The phone has to support the band and mode that your potential carrier uses. This isnt much of a problem in North America, since it is generally all Digital or better and the carriers use both 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz.

i agree with it. Usually, the CDMA PHONES we referred to is CDMA2000, but we don't know whether they can work in Verizon or Sprint. Who can confirm this?

Yes, there are some carriers that will, however, most wont. Also, that is what you would need to program into your phone to have it work on another carrier, unless you want the carrier to wipe everything. I should also note that not all CDMA phones work with all CDMA carriers. The phone has to support the band and mode that your potential carrier uses. This isnt much of a problem in North America, since it is generally all Digital or better and the carriers use both 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz.

Well, Verizon Wireless will be able to activate any CDMA phone and have had very few problems doing this. You wouldn't need to "unlock" the phone for them to do this anyway...it works quite well...

As far as most carriers, it is up to the carrier.

This is an explanation of why you "can't" unlock a CDMA based phone.

Yes, unlocking a CDMA based phone is possible. However, for all practical purposes, you cant. Ignoring the fact that most mobile providers wont activate your cell phone on their network, you "can't" unlock a CDMA phone, because just to get voice calls to work, you would need to get a MSL, or Master Subsidary Lock, your new number, a MCC, MNC, PRL, PRI, Home NID, Home SID. The MSL is guarded very well, and the only way to get one for the most part is to go to your service provider's store and use some social engineering to get them to tell you your MSL. If you can get this far, good job!

Next you need information from the network you want to activate your CDMA phone on. This means you need a PRL, PRI, MCC, MNC, Home NID and a Home SID. Some of this you can find on Google, others, like your PRL and PRI you will need to get from your carrier. Thankfully, the PRL and PRI are fairly easy to get. You call from *22800 to *22807, depending on your carrier to get the correct PRL and PRI. (NOTE: Once you get your new PRL and PRI, all you need to do is call *228 to update it.) If you can get this far, and have your phone correctly work, I congratulate you!

Now for text messaging, and data.

For text messaging and data, you need a lot of numbers. You will need to update the username, SPI AAA, SPI HA, RTP, MHA, PHA, PSA, gateway, DEP, DES, DGWP, DGWS, EPP, EPS, EPP Port, EPS Port, Retry timer 1, and your retry timer 2. This you will have to get from your carrier. Please note that depending on your phone, you will have to program the username, SPI AAA, SPI HA, RTP, MHA, PHA and PSA more than once, and possibly with multiple values. If you get all this, I will be amazed.

This is why you "can't" unlock a CDMA phone.

I will not help you to reprogram your phone, so please dont ask me. Any requests to reprogram phones, via fourm, e-mail, or PM will be deleted. If you would like to know what the acronyms are, use google. If you would like to know information on some of these, use google.